Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) afford your patients greater choice and decision-making power than any previous health care benefit system. HSAs spring from a consumer-directed approach to health care. The focus is on motivating patients to take a more active role in managing their health care finances, as well as become proactive in maintaining good health and wellness.

HSAs have certain characteristics that can influence the patient-practitioner relationship:

• Enrollees of the flexible consumer-driven benefit plans have the choice to receive care for covered services in-network or out-of-network and they can see specialists without a referral.
• When enrollees stay in-network, they pay lower out-of-pocket costs and maximize their benefit dollars. HSAs require enrollees to meet an annual deductible. Once they do, eligible expenses are covered by the HSA’s medical benefit plan.
• Reimbursement for covered services generally is subject to co-insurance and occasionally to copayments. But enrollees can use HSA medical savings account to help offset these initial out-of-pocket expenses.
• Enrollees in a consumer directed health plan are protected by an annual out-of-pocket maximum limiting how much they might have to pay themselves. Most services and other covered expenses do not require authorization.

With greater control over how their health care funds are spent, patients with HSAs are more focused on the financial consequences of health care choices. They may ask their physician more questions and seek alternative, cost-effective treatments more frequently in order to manage their HSA funds appropriately.

This change creates new opportunities for physicians and other health care professionals to offer information, advice, and coaching to your patients concerning the pros and cons of various courses of treatment. Such assistance is especially critical when your patients decide to forego treatment for financial reasons. According to an article in Physician's Practice¹, providers may find patients who:

• Avoid making an appointment when mildly ill, which may increase the risk of a more complex illness;
• Make the decision not to make appointments for prescribed tests;
• Make the decision not to fill prescriptions;
• Make the decision not to see a specialist as recommended by their primary care physician;
• Make the decision not to return for a follow-up visit or for routine visits (such as for patients with high blood pressure whom the physician wants to see semi annually).”¹

By preparing a well-informed and persuasive response ahead of time, practitioners can implement a decisive, effective and consistent method for handling your patients’ misunderstandings and resistance under these and similar circumstances.

To maintain a competitive edge in this consumer-driven market, physicians and other health care professionals can:

• Enhance marketing efforts to reach out to increasing numbers of discerning consumers;
• Offer attractive, patient-friendly services such as extended office hours and on-time appointment schedules;
• Support treatment recommendations and practice performance records with detailed outcome data.

Modifying and improving collection policies may also be necessary in adjusting to payment process changes brought about by HSAs. Because responsibility for payment is placed more squarely on the consumer, it is more important than ever for practices to help educate their patients concerning the financial aspects of their health care decisions.

Consumer-directed health care is an innovative approach that provides new opportunities for growth and empowerment within the health care system. Through examining and revising the approach to patient education, marketing, and collections, health care organizations can maximize the benefits HSAs offer to their patients and their practice.

¹ Angottie, Paul.“The New Payment Models: How Your Practice Can Adapt and Thrive,” in Physician’s Practice, January 2005.

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